Payment of unemployment insurance benefits under a work-sharing program

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Currently, if a claimant under the unemployment insurance (UI) law receives no wages or certain other amounts that are treated as wages for a given week, the claimant may receive the full benefit for that week to which the claimant is entitled if the claimant meets eligibility requirements. However, with certain exceptions, if a claimant earns wages or certain other amounts treated as wages in a given week, the first $30 of the wages or other amounts are disregarded and the claimant's weekly benefit payment is reduced by 67 percent of any remaining amount earned, but no claimant is eligible to receive UI benefits for any week if the benefits would be less than $5, and any wages that the claimant would have earned in any week for work performed for his or her employer had the claimant accepted available work from that employer are treated as wages earned for that week.

This bill permits an employer to create a work-sharing program within a work unit of the employer. Before implementation of any program, an employer must submit a work-share plan to the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and obtain DWD's approval of the plan. As a part of its submittal, the employer must certify that its plan is in compliance with all requirements under the law. Under the bill, a work-share program may be in effect for no longer than six months within a five-year period and must include at least ten percent of and at least 20 employees in the work unit. Under the program, the working hours of all of the full-time employees in the program are reduced in an equitable manner in lieu of a total layoff of some of the employees and a continuation of full-time employment by the other employees. The bill provides that a claimant who is included in a work-share program may receive UI benefits during his or her continued employment with the work-sharing employer in an amount equal to the claimant's benefit for total unemployment multiplied by the same percentage reduction in normal working hours that the claimant incurs under the program, or the benefit that would be payable to the claimant under the current formula for payment of UI benefits for partial unemployment, whichever is higher. A claimant who begins receiving UI benefits before the effective period of a work-share program and who remains eligible for benefits is eligible to receive work-share benefits up to the total amount of the claimant's benefit entitlement and a claimant who has remaining benefit entitlement after the effective period of a work-share program and who remains eligible for UI benefits may continue to receive benefits until the entitlement is exhausted. The bill does not affect eligibility for supplemental UI benefits such as federal/state extended benefits, Wisconsin supplemental benefits and special additional federal benefits in the full amounts that would otherwise be payable.

Who's behind it

4 senators are its authors⁠. All 4 are Democrats.

6 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.

What it would cost

State agencies filed a cost estimate. Each opens as a PDF from the Legislature.

• Fiscal Estimate From DWD